


Release Us

by MysticalAuthoress



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Attempted Murder, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Escape the Night Season 1, Escape the Night Season 1 Spoilers, Escape the Night Season 2 Spoilers, Escape the Night Season 3 Spoilers, Escape the Night Spoilers, Kidnapping, Lele lives, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Murder, Rescue, Vincent and Lele to the rescue, and ends post Escape the Night season 3, kind of, only canonical because of arthur and the staff, starts during episode 9 to 10 of escape the night season 1, vincent stays behind and helps the guests
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 00:34:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18435362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysticalAuthoress/pseuds/MysticalAuthoress
Summary: Escape The Night Season 1 Canon-Divergent AU. The one where Lele miraculously survived and Vincent Wells stays behind and tries to help the guests escape the house alive, even when he’s given the opportunity to leave.





	Release Us

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the Escape The Night series!
> 
> This idea literally just came to mind for me during this past week, and I just had to write it down. I hope you enjoy this canon-divergent take on Season 1!

 

Lele Pons lives.

Same goes for Oli White.

Eva and Joey both have no clue how the hell both are still alive, given that one of them _was_ supposed to die, but they’re amazed what happened. Instead of Lele going up in screams and shocks worse than the one they already endured, the chairs…shut down.  

It’s a _miracle._

Lele and Oli look fazed as they get out of their chairs, mainly because they’ve been shocked for so long during the challenge from the electricity, but seem mostly alive otherwise.

“Ohmygod,” Lele hears Joey mutter as he hugs her, almost breaking into tears, “I thought I was gonna lose you.”

Lele imagines a world where she dies, screaming out for mercy, and hugs Joey back. “I’m just glad I’m not dead yet,” She manages.

Eva and Oli also embrace her with a hug. Lele hugs them both, and she hears Eva sob.

“I’m sorry I almost killed you.”

“Damn it, Eva,” Lele hugs her tight, “It’s not your fault. It’s whoever made up that fucking challenge. Fuck Dr. Price.”

She hears Oli laugh a little bit, despite still being shaken up from the electric chairs. She laughs, too, before they get the third key and head upstairs, ready to release the owner and get a step closer to freedom.

* * *

 

Vincent is relieved—not just because there aren’t more deaths like he thought might happen, but because he’s finally released. He’s _free_. They have all three keys and they just took the straitjacket off him.

“I’m free.”

Lele, the blonde, smiles at him, and he’s sure it’s very real.

“My hallucinations—” _They’re gone._

He’s not sure if he’s had a time where he’s felt as clear as he did right now. Maybe it’s because he’s free from the evil of the house, free to leave this house and move on to wherever he might go, but….

The relief vanishes when he sees that man.

_“You.”_

Joey looks to Eva, blinking as Vincent points towards them. “Eva…?”

Vincent shook his head, taking one step closer to Arthur. One step closer to strangling the _hell_ out of Arthur. "I don't envy the road that lies ahead of you. The owner of this house...is a _monster."_ Rage lingers in Vincent’s voice, but he can’t help it. There’s so much of it that he can’t help it. "You can have it all. The house...the hallucinations...the _madness!”_

Arthur steps forward, pushing the group aside as he glares right into Vincent’s eyes, spitting out, “That will be _all,_ Vincent!”

Vincent dares to look him in the eye and snarl back, _“You don’t control me anymore.”_

He hears someone gasp, and he’s not sure who, but he _has_ to tell them the truth. He did his best to, before getting locked up, but now he has the chance to spell it out for them.

“I tried to warn you,” Vincent hissed, looking to the group, “But _you didn’t listen.”_

* * *

 

An “ohmygod” comes from Eva in realization, her and Oli exchanging looks. Joey looks to Lele, and Lele realizes.

The note Oli read aloud earlier tonight.

_One of you in league with the evil of the house._

Vincent _wrote_ that note.

 _He tried to save us,_ Lele realizes, _and we fell for it anyway._

* * *

 

_Run._

Vincent knows it’s best to leave. He wants to leave, has wanted to leave ever since being locked in that straitjacket, but these four people had no idea what they got into. Even in the depths of his insanity, he knows that deep down.

He _can’t_ let them get hurt.

He _can’t_ let them die. It weighs too much on his conscience to just leave them to potentially die, even if he did try warning them in the first place.

So he lunges at Arthur, tackles him down, and screams.

“Go! _Run!”_

The screams of the guests echo in his ears as he and Arthur wrestle each other, slamming each other against the walls of the room, punch each other in the face. Vincent thinks he might be able to hold Arthur down just enough so the guests can flee the house.

He’s wrong.

Arthur has him pinned against the wall, arms twisted painfully behind his back, and a hiss escapes Vincent’s lungs as he feels one of Arthur’s hands grab his hair and pull.

“You,” Arthur whispers, losing all sense of calm from earlier, “Are _not_ leaving. None of you will!”

* * *

 

Lele hides.

She _knows_ it’s cowardly, and she would sock the living daylights out of Sarah and Marvin if she could, but she’s the _only_ one that didn’t get grabbed by the staff, so she hides in one of the mansion’s closets. It smells of mothballs, makes her want to gag, but now way in hell is she letting herself get captured. _No way in hell._

She hears a kick, a sob, and she realizes that it’s Vincent just outside the closet. Arthur must have beaten Vincent, must be beating him up, and damn it, the man doesn’t deserve it.

“You little whelp,” Arthur’s snarls come out from outside the closet. “You _may_ have bought time for that other girl, but we’ll find her soon enough. She’ll be victim to this house just like _you_ are. Just like the others will be.”

“You _monster,”_ Vincent sobs, and Lele’s heart breaks for him. She has no clue how much Vincent has suffered, being in this house, but she can’t imagine it was any good for him.

And it was Arthur that did it to him, too. She had a feeling she should’ve never trusted the staff at the beginning of the night. She thinks back to Justine being buried alive, the maid serving that decapitated head after Shane got poisoned.

_If Marvin and Sarah couldn’t be trusted, we should never have trusted Arthur._

“Marvin,” She hears Arthur speak, “Lock up Vincent in his jacket.”

“No!” Vincent’s protests make her want to bust out of the closet, and beat the hell out of the staff. “No, _no!”_

“You could have just walked away.” Arthur’s voice turns bitter. “You knew that once you were freed, you had that chance. But now you’ve wasted it.”

Lele hears struggling, the whimpers of “no,” and three locks clicking back into place.

“Leave him here. He can’t go far like this.” A dark laugh escapes the butler. “And I’ll take these keys with me, now. No hope for you.”

Lele almost cries as she hears Arthur laughing as he and the staff walk away, hears Vincent cry out in horror and anguish. But she pulls herself together as much as she can, waiting for the right time to come out.

* * *

 

Vincent isn’t sure if he can handle more of this.

He tasted freedom, for a moment, tasted clarity—only to have that taken away from him instantly.

But then he sees the closet door open, and he closes his eyes, bracing the worst of his hallucinations to come.

“Vincent?”

His eyes blur with tears as he sees the blonde-haired angel from earlier get down on her knees to examine the locks on his body.

‘A-are you…” He heaves a sob, trying to keep quiet, before managing, “Are you real?”

She nods, her gaze darting around quickly before looking him in the eyes. “It’s me, it’s Lele.” She responded, swallowing. She looks like she might cry, or already cried. “I’m gonna get you out of those locks again, okay? Do you know where they took Joey and the others?”

“The others…?” Vincent vaguely recalls seeing an unconscious Journalist, Savant, and Big Game Hunter being dragged away, and he shudders. “The basement. I think he took them there…somewhere in there.”

“Shit.” Lele shakes her head, before putting her hands to her own hair. It’s messy now, and down, and she finally pulls out a hairpin. “Maybe this will work? Uh…”

He flinches as she points the hairpin towards his back, where the locks are in place. He hears one ‘click,’ a “thank god” from Lele (it reminds him of the priest, Father Santos, and Vincent wonders for a moment if he’s resting in peace now), and then a second click.

The third lock does not undo itself. Vicnent hears a ‘snap’ and Lele swears again.

“I only got two of the locks undone.”

“The key.” Vincent whispers, looking up at her shakily. “Do you have a key?”

Lele grimaces, shakes her head. “No.” She paused, looking around again, before looking down at him. “I’m gonna help you stand, okay? Maybe we can find something to undo that third lock.”

He nods as best as he can from his position on the floor, and she helps him get up.

* * *

 

Lele is _pissed_ that she couldn’t undo the third lock, because her hairpin just _had_ to break at that moment. However, it looks like Vincent can at least flex his arms a _little_ , even if they’re still stuck behind his back. It’s better than nothing, and Lele just hopes they can find something (or an actual key) to undo that third lock.

Until then, they have to find their friends, rescue them, and get the hell out of here.

Turns out they don’t have to. Lele and Vincent end up hiding under the dining table just before the staff passes through, hearing their angry shouts. 

Eva, Oli and Joey are already on the loose. Somehow, they escaped.

The mission to ‘save their friends’ turns into ‘find our friends’ and Lele isn’t sure which one is worse.

Sarah takes over the lower level of the house while Arthur has the back and Marvin takes the sides, so Lele and Vincent move carefully towards the spiral staircase, to go upstairs and try to see if their friends made it up there.

All Lele can hope is that said friends weren’t dumb enough to get killed at this point, because the house staff aren’t looking to enslave people. She overheard them talking about killing them all, after all.

* * *

 

“Vincent!”

“Lele!?”

Both are greeted by Eva, Joey and Oli, who were in the middle of searching for something when they walk into one of the rooms. Vincent almost screams, startled, but he muffles himself with one hand, mindful of the staff lingering on the lower floor.

“Ohmygod, you’re okay!” Joey looks relieved, but then his face falls as he sees the third lock still stuck on Vincent. “What did Arthur do to you?”

“He…” Vincent tries not to think of the pain, “He tried to lock me in again. Lele undid two of the locks.”

Eva looks to Lele, jaw dropping. “You kept the keys?”

Lele shakes her head, groaning. “No, I had to use my hairpin to try to pick the locks, Arthur took all the keys. I would’ve gotten the third lock if it wasn’t for my pin breaking!” She looks to Joey, then Eva, then Oli. “What about you three? What happened?”

Oli groans, looking down at himself and then up at Lele. “We got a serum injected in us and we’ll end up being bloody brainwashed if we don’t escape this house by sunrise!”

“What the fuck.” Lele can’t believe it. _Would Arthur do that to me, too, if he caught me?_ She’s suddenly glad she didn’t get caught earlier, for more than just helping Vincent out.

“Why are you still here?” It’s Joey that speaks up, looking to Vincent. “You could have left like the other owners, why…?”

Vincent bites his lower lip, his gaze averting Joey’s own, before he looks to him one more time. His gaze is wild, desperate, but there’s a semblance of sanity to it, too. “I was tempted to leave. But I can’t just leave you. Not like this.”

“Vincent…” Eva trails off, looks to him. “Thank you.” Lele hears a bit of relief in her tone.

To be fair, Colin from beforehand was just a jerkass. But Vincent? He really did have a good heart.

* * *

 

Eva finds a spare pin in a drawer, and Lele uses it to unlock Vincent from the last of his bonds, taking the straitjacket off him for the second time. Vincent is thankful for that, and savours the newfound freedom. After that, he helps them find the gems to put in the gargoyle eyes, but after _that,_ the staff caught sight of them.

_“Right here!”_

“I’ll slow them down.” Vincent manages, looking to Lele, Joey, Oli and Eva. “You four run!”

“Are you sure!?” Joey looks terrified, and Vincent can’t imagine how many dead bodies he’s seen already. “You don’t deserve to die!”

_“Run!”_

Joey and the others reluctantly heed his request. Marvin catches up to Vincent, first, but Vincent grabs a previously discarded shovel on the ground, whirling around and whacking the man in the head. Marvin goes down, howling in pain, and Vincent immediately starts running to catch up with the group. He makes it inside, only to see Sarah at the ready with her knife, and he immediately whacks her in the stomach with it. She gasps, stumbling back as she drops her knife, and he whacks her in the head for good measure.

Vincent somehow manages to catch up with everyone else. The grip on the shovel in his hands is shaky, but at least he has something to use against Arthur and the rest of the staff. Those staff are _not_ touching these innocent people left. Not if Vincent can help it.

 

They found the “spiral of pain” to feed the demon that “bathed in a pool of blood.” Vincent was ready to take down literal demons, he’d seen too many of those in his visions, but they were not what they seemed at all. He wasn’t sure whether he should feel relieved at that or not.

And then they went to the cellar. Arthur’s brother.

Another victim. Vincent’s heart broke at the sight. The poor man didn’t deserve to be stuck here.

 _He’s just like me and the others,_ Vincent thought bitterly. _He’s been trapped, too._

Vincent can’t help the relief that runs through him when he sees Arthur’s brother shoot Arthur for dead, in the end. He can’t help but grin, wryly, as Arthur’s dead corpse floats in the fountain. He deserved it.

* * *

 

The five just left the mansion, having buried the artifacts and done the ritual to banish the evil correctly, and uniformed people run into them. Claim that they’re from the Society of Evil, like Shane.

Tell them that they want to take Vincent with them while returning the guests to 2016.

Lele’s the first to speak up.

“Hell to the fucking _no_. He just saved our lives, and you want to take him away?”

“He did nothing wrong!” Joey defends.

Eva snaps, “He helped us!”

Oli is the one that asks, _“Why_ are you taking him?”

Vincent is just confused, and even terrified, on the verge of running, but some part of his conscience tells him he needs to go with this stranger from the Society Against Evil.

“I’ll go.”

* * *

 

 _“What?”_ Lele grabs him by the arm, looking him in the eye, and he almost flinches at her sudden touch. “Vincent, you don’t have to go. You can come with us!”

 _Where the hell do the owners go once they’re free, anyway?_ Lele’s mind races with too many questions at once.

Vincent shakes his head, pulls his arm out of her grip. “You…need to go back home. And I…” He faltered, his gaze vanishing from hers, “I don’t belong there.”

“We can help you adapt to 2016,” Joey offers. “I don’t know, is there any way we could…?”

The Society Against Evil member shakes their head. “It’s best if he comes with us. We’ll take good care of him, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

Vincent shakes his head as he looks to the group. “You saved me.” He stated, his voice trembling a bit. “I didn’t think I’d ever get out. But you saved me.”

“But you helped us get out.” Oli tries to protest, but then his voice dies down as Vincent looks to him.

“I know. But…it might be better this way.”

“Better?” Lele spits out. “How the hell does it make it better?”

But Vincent’s made up his mind, she can see that in him, and she eventually sighs.

“Fine. But…” She gives him a hug, for good measure. “Be careful, okay? And if they’re not treating you well, just come find me somehow and I’ll beat the shit out of them for you.”

Vincent looks startled at that, and Lele can’t help but smirk at the Society Against Evil member’s disturbed look on their face. However, Vincent does smile, before whispering, “Okay.”

* * *

 

The ‘official’ news comes out after they’ve been returned to their friends and family. It’s publicly reported that Joey, Lele, Oli and Eva are the four survivors of a mass kidnapping that Arthur pulled off, and that he tortured the other guests to death before the Society Against Evil managed to track him and the survivors down and stop Arthur in their tracks.

There’s no mention of Vincent, the man who actually helped them get out. Lele is pissed, but she doesn’t mention Vincent to her family when they embrace her with hugs. She sees Joey and his boyfriend Daniel crying and hugging each other, as well as the rest of Joey’s family present, and Oli and Eva are both surrounded by their families, too.

Lele wonders if Vincent has family waiting for him where he is. She hopes he does.

* * *

 

About a few years pass. It’s 2019, now. She’s already released “Celoso,” and keeps herself occupied with other things so she doesn’t think too much about the people that died during the first party.

There are two more odd parties that Joey’s involved in. Lele’s just glad she didn’t get invited to the third one (she got an invitation to the second one, like Oli and Eva did, but she fed it to the closest paper shredder immediately after reading it). More people die.

Lele sometimes visits the graves of the people that went to that first party with her, keeps in general contact with Oli and Eva and tries not to think too much of what happened at that house, or what became of Joey and Vincent. Joey went missing after the second party, but _apparently_ he was found alive during the third one, or that’s what’s being said on the official news, at least. She’s not sure if she can fully believe it, like how Matthew “Matpat” Patrick ‘miraculously survived’ severe head injuries that should have killed him.

She’s not sure where Vincent went after they parted ways with him after escaping the manor. She hopes that he’s okay. Though she sometimes get odd letters with no return address and signed ‘Vincent’ that ask how she’s doing and if she’s seen anything in the lightbulbs lately (she has a feeling that trait of his will never go away), she’s not sure how to respond to them. She has a bunch of written letters to him in a drawer in her bedroom, because she doesn’t know where to send them.

But then she hears the doorbell ring at the front door, and, well, she was expecting a pizza, so she goes and opens it.

It’s not pizza.

 _Vincent_ is right there. He’s changed into different clothes, a leather jacket and jeans that seems out of place on him along with some shoes and glasses that make him look a bit more like a dork, but it’s definitely him. She sees it in his eyes.

“Lele.” A pause, then he takes off the glasses, and he looks much more like himself now. “I…”

She hugs him. She feels him get startled, but he hugs her back, a bit less tightly than her, but it’s something.

* * *

 

She asks him why he’s dressed like a nerd. He explains he needed to look like he comes from 2019. He looks kinda cute. Not the jerkass-Colin kind of cute, but there’s an air of innocence and wellness around Vincent right now. He looks like he’s slept, given the slight lack of dark circles around his eyes, and she figures the Society Against Evil is treating him well. Thank goodness, or else she would’ve gladly went to beat the shit out of them all.

Lele shows Vincent the letters. Vincent reads a good chunk of them, touched that she thought of him after all these years, but then the pizza arrived and they got distracted. Vincent decided he’d finish reading after they were done eating.

“So, uh, how did you find me?”

Vincent pauses mid-eating the pizza, before he swallows and then sighs.

“The Society Against Evil sent me. They wanted me to give you a message.”

“They’ve been good to you?”

He shrugs. “Yes.” He takes another bite of pizza, chewing cautiously as if he fears it’s poisoned, before swallowing again. Lele figured that it made sense for him to be cautious still, even if he did escape from that manor along with her and the few friends left with her. “I’ve been…getting some treatment. For…” He pointed at his head. “Here.”

She noticed the relief in his eyes at that last part. _At least his experience with doctors improved._

“And they just released you into the world? Into 2019, after they were done?” It makes her wonder if he has a place to live here. It would be nice to visit.

Vincent shakes his head. “Not quite. I work for them now.”

Shane comes to mind. “Like, you hunt the bad guys and fight evil, or…?”

“I haven’t been on a solo mission. And they’re still recovering from Everlock, apparently, so…” He took a deep breath, looking her into the eyes. “I don’t know how much you know about that, but Joey was there.”

“I knew that. The news told us he was caught in that incident.” In a way, Lele does feel bad for Joey, given how much the poor guy had to go through seeing all the deaths of his friends. Lele knows that one party was bad enough, but _three_ parties resulting in death? That’s even worse. She can’t imagine how bad Joey feels right now.

“He got something special that might help…regarding the deaths of his friends.” Vincent then made eye contact with her, his gaze softening. “Including yours.”

Lele’s jaw drops.

“What do you mean,” She starts, “it could help the deaths of my friends? Like…”

 _Bring them back?_ She wanted to ask, but the words didn’t come out.

Once people were dead, they were _dead_ , right? No going back (not as far as she knew).

Vincent swallows.

“I don’t know the details,” He manages, “But they told me Joey has a crystal that can help make things right. And that…I needed to ask you if you could help him.”

She thinks of Eva and Oli, of Tyler and Andrea, of Matpat and Nikita. “What about the others? Are they getting asked, too, or is it just me or…?”

“I think they’re asking the other survivors. I don’t know if they will accept.” A pause, then his gaze turned hesitant. “You don’t have to help if you don’t want to. I’m not going to force you.”

Both of them knew, deep down, that getting forced into situations that were dangerous never ended well. It was fair for him to bring it up, and Lele felt inclined to take that piece of advice, turn down the offer, and resume having as normal a life as she could.

But…there was something else that nagged her. A desire to see her friends again. Sierra never deserved to die, neither did Shane. And sure, Glozell pissed off Joey enough at the time enough for him to write her name, but it could have easily been Matt. And even then, despite her hatred for Matt insisting she was working with the evil of the house, he didn’t deserve death either. Neither did Justine. Or Tim. Or Andrea.

_And I could’ve died, too. Same with Eva, Oli and Joey. We just got lucky we survived._

“Count me in.”

Vincent looks surprised. “You…mean that?” Worry laces his tone. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Because I can’t just leave them.”

As the words escaped her throat, she realized that she sounded almost like Vincent in that moment. Vincent himself seemed to realize that too, staring right back at her.

But then he nods, once, knowing that he can’t stop her.  “Let’s go, then.”

* * *

 

Joey Graceffa sits in his house, holding the crystal. He can’t sleep, thinking of the numerous dead friends from the three parties from the past years. It’s hard to not think of them, especially when that third party seriously was all his fault that they were dead. At least the second party technically didn’t have him at fault, given that those invitations were faked, but he still takes responsibility for the first party, technically, even if he didn’t know what they were getting into. It doesn’t make him feel any better.

Then, all of a sudden, the doorbell rings. He stands up from the couch in the living room, goes towards the front door. Part of him wonders if it’s an evil out to get him, but he pushes the thought away as soon as it comes up.

He opens the door, and one Lele Pons and Vincent Wells are standing there. Joey doesn’t recognize Vincent as well as Lele at first, but both are there, dressed in the leather uniforms of the Society Against Evil. It’s both a familiar and odd sight to see, and he manages a few words, despite his throat drying up a bit.

“What the…Lele? Vincent? Why are you two here?”

Lele looks Joey dead in the eye, before she speaks.

“So we can figure out how to save our friends. Mind telling us more about that crystal of yours?”


End file.
